8 ms·

PHP 5.5.5 Released

105 points by Jeremy1026 13y ago

panacea 13y ago
On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate this release?
- drrotmos 13y ago
  I'd say 5
  - kristofferR 13y ago
    .5.5 Thais, meanwhile, are laughing their asses off (555 means hahaha in Thai). EDIT: radioxid, you're silentbanned.
    - radioxid 13y ago
      How does that work? I'm genuinely wondering. EDIT: What? Why? Apparently I'm also slowbanned and it's been a year.. I really don't get why…
    - linker3000 13y ago
      I tried to phone in for more info but apparently the number's fake.
- progx 13y ago
  Is 1 good or bad ? And rate what? Rate that they fix many things, or rate that they have so much bugs to fix ?
- perpetuated 13y ago
  "Added support for GNU Hurd." 10/10.
  - sigzero 13y ago
    Why?
simias 13y ago
There should be a guideline against posting raw changelogs to HN. What are the highlights? The significant features?
- fafner 13y ago
  Raw changelogs aren't the issue. Submitting minor-minor bug fix releases is the issue.
  - addandsubtract 13y ago
    Updating PHP is the issue.
  - criswell 13y ago
    I think it's the 5.5.5. If it was like 5.5.3 no one would up vote it.
- ihsw 13y ago
  For significant features implemented, you can look here: https://wiki.php.net/rfc#implemented https://wiki.php.net/rfc#implemented Granted, this was a minor point release, so there are no new features (only bugfixes and minor perf improvements).
- kbenson 13y ago
  When the site is based on and praised for it's "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" process, you can't complain too much when certain nasty things tend to be fairly sticky.
qnk 13y ago
This is just a maintenance release. If you want to see what's coming to PHP for the next feature-release version, check the RFC wiki at https://wiki.php.net/rfc https://wiki.php.net/rfc So far, these features will probably make it to version 5.6: * Internal Operator Overloading * Variadic functions
- borplk 13y ago
  > Operator Overloading That's scary
  - TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
    It's for internal PHP runtime use only. IIRC we're adding it so that our bignum library is nicer to use.
- rbmoshe 13y ago
  > Variadic functions Doesn't PHP have that already? http://us2.php.net/func_get_args http://us2.php.net/func_get_args Edit - Checking out that parent link it seems: Currently variadic functions are implemented by fetching the function arguments using func_get_args(). The following code sample shows an implementation of a variadic function used to prepare and execute a MySQL query (I'll be making use of this example throughout the RFC): Firstly, by just looking at the function signature public function query($query) you cannot know that this is actually a variadic function. You'd think that the function can only run a normal query and doesn't support bound parameters: public function query($query, ...$params) { /*... $userData = $db->query('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?', $userID)->fetch();
  - TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
    There's a counterpart unpacking syntax which will likely also get merged in, meaning you can have: function query($query, ...$params) {} and $params = [3]; query('SELECT * FROM table WHERE a = ?;', ...$params);
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
dancecodes 13y ago
waiting erlang features: -pattern matching -atoms -tuples -lists -hot code loading -function arguments matching -tail recursion -term_to_binary binary_to_term -lightweight green processes with PIDs -receive...end -begin...end -pash -and other nice features from erlang
- jtreminio 13y ago
  Why don't you just use erlang then? This isn't in PHP's interest.
  - dancecodes 13y ago
    I use Erlang in some tasks. Its very cool system but not have some features such in PHP. No OOP and namespaces. PHP stay at important point now and must determinate vector for main moving. I think its may branch to FP and inspired on Erlang. Repeat again its may be branch. But without major types like lists and tuples and pattern matching its not quite...but I dont know. These things make major flower. Im sorry for love Erlang and PHP but it is true.
- GrinningFool 13y ago
  Not to put too fine a point on it, but why wouldn't you just use Erlang?
  - dancecodes 13y ago
    Erlang dont have objects and namespaces
M4N14C 13y ago
You can't polish a turd.
ck2 13y ago
Note there is no speed improvement between PHP 5.4 and 5.5 Unless you need a 5.5 feature, best to wait. Of course you can manually install the open-sourced zend opcode cache into PHP 5.4 and get the speed improvement from that.
- ecaron 13y ago
  That's a rather bold statement to make. Windows users, for instance, see a tremendous speed bump in going to 5.5 (http://blog.syntaxc4.net/post/2013/06/20/php-5-5-0-for-windows-released.aspx http://blog.syntaxc4.net/post/2013/06/20/php-5-5-0-for-windo...). Obviously going the "there is/isn't performance gains" flamewar route alone is a conversation nobody would win. So I would through this out there: If you have the capability to move to PHP 5.5, because there aren't performance penalties, you should - if for no other reason than it'll help you stay ahead of the PHP EOL sythe.
leeoniya 13y ago
"Added support for GNU Hurd" finally! /s Humor aside, it's nice to see how OPCache has displaced APC and is under active maintenance in step with the core.
pearjuice 13y ago
We can't have anything involving PHP without: * complaints about features it has or has not * a reference to that "a fractal of bad design" article * how language x is better * sarcastic notes about the above * one guy pointing out we can't have anything involving PHP without the above
- Udo 13y ago
  Overall you're right, this is what irritates me about almost any PHP thread as well. Almost no HNer would go into, say, a C++ thread, spit on it and advertise Python. But yet the same thing is happening regularly with PHP. Then again, I was pleasantly surprised we don't have that in this thread (yet). However, I don't think this is a worthwhile URL to point to on the grounds of near-irrelevance. There are no major new features being released here.
  - pearjuice 13y ago
    >Then again, I was pleasantly surprised we don't have that in this thread (yet). By any chance, do you have "show dead" turned off? Because you are missing out.
    - Udo 13y ago
      Ooops, you're right :) But those are dead for a reason, I wouldn't include them when judging a thread anyway.
  - astrodust 13y ago
    The reason Python people don't go into a C++ thread is because the C++ people will take care of themselves, getting into bitter trench warfare over wether X feature was a good idea, a great idea, or the worst idea ever. PHP, Python, Ruby, Perl and C# have a lot of overlap in terms of what they do, but the overlap between C++ and Python is way smaller. C#, C++ and Java have much more in common. There are some things that C++ is very good at, where the alternative is usually C, something most would prefer to avoid. There's nothing that PHP is very good at that Python, Ruby, Perl or C# can't do nearly as well. That's why it attracts so much criticism.
thehme 13y ago
Goal of the day: going home to upgrade to latest PHP latest 5.5 patch version. (5.6 later https://wiki.php.net/rfc https://wiki.php.net/rfc)
ausjke 13y ago
PHP was picked on because it is too popular? I dare to say that after some considerations my project is using PHP. I use python daily, but that does not mean I need hate other languages. All has its places and different projects can have different choices.
rofl 13y ago
You can not make "the most popular language for web development" without attracting a few jealous people and their negativities. Like it or not, PHP is THE most popular language for developing web applications. And it didn't reach that rank without merits. Sun pushed Java, Microsoft pushed C#, Google pushed Python in direct and indirect ways (but Google gave up on Python and created Go). No big company spent a lot of money to push PHP (Yahoo started using PHP when it was already popular). PHP reached there because it had some merits in it. - PHP is easy to get started and it helps people without CS background to learn it quickly and code apps to solve problems. - PHP doesn't force you to use OOP unless you need or want that. A musician named Derek Sivers who had no CS background created CDBaby website after following instructions in a PHP book. When Rails fanboys were making a lot of news, Derek decided to use Rails and scrap the original PHP codes [1]. He hired a top Rails developer and spent a lot of money (compared to the money - i.e. cost of a book on PHP - spent on his original PHP code) to rebuild CDBaby in Rails. The project eventually failed - time and money lost. CDBaby continued to grow rapidly and the site was powered by PHP codes. By telling this story, I am not trying to say Ruby and Rails are hard or bad. Ruby and Rails are tools just like PHP. The point I want to make with this story is PHP can get almost anyone up and running without much difficulties. Many people could get into business easily because of the ease of PHP. Just think if Derek had tried to make his first site using Rails! Probably, we would have never known the story of CDBaby. I believe, the purpose of a programming language is to make it easy for user (of the language) to create solution instead of trying to prove the greatness (e.g. lot of features) of itself or it's creator. Why is PHP easy? PHP is easy because Rasmus Lerdorf didn't have CS background. He didn't want to create a language to have all the features and concepts taught/learn in a CS class of programming languages. Rasmus just wanted to create a tool to easily publish pages dynamically on web. On the other hand, you can take a look at Java if you want to know how a language looks when the creator has PhD in CS and wants to apply all his knowledge of CS in the language. I am NOT trying to bash Java or Gosling, just trying to explain why some languages are created complex and difficult. TL;DR: PHP is just a tool like Ruby or C. It has plus and minus points like any other language. PHP makes it easy to get up and running (even if you don't have a degree in CS). If you like PHP (after you try it), stick to it (because with PHP, you can get atleast as big as Facebook). If you don't like it, pick another language that works for you. And this last point is mainly for Snake lovers on HN : never bite a language (or users of that language) because you don't like or use that language. [1] http://www.oreillynet.com/ruby/blog/2007/09/7_reasons_i_switched_back_to_p_1.html http://www.oreillynet.com/ruby/blog/2007/09/7_reasons_i_swit...

PHP 5.5.5 Released

105 points by Jeremy1026 13y ago

panacea 13y ago

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate this release?

drrotmos 13y ago
I'd say 5
- kristofferR 13y ago
  .5.5 Thais, meanwhile, are laughing their asses off (555 means hahaha in Thai). EDIT: radioxid, you're silentbanned.
  - radioxid 13y ago
    How does that work? I'm genuinely wondering. EDIT: What? Why? Apparently I'm also slowbanned and it's been a year.. I really don't get why…
  - linker3000 13y ago
    I tried to phone in for more info but apparently the number's fake.
progx 13y ago
Is 1 good or bad ? And rate what? Rate that they fix many things, or rate that they have so much bugs to fix ?
perpetuated 13y ago
"Added support for GNU Hurd." 10/10.
- sigzero 13y ago
  Why?

simias 13y ago

There should be a guideline against posting raw changelogs to HN. What are the highlights? The significant features?

fafner 13y ago
Raw changelogs aren't the issue. Submitting minor-minor bug fix releases is the issue.
- addandsubtract 13y ago
  Updating PHP is the issue.
- criswell 13y ago
  I think it's the 5.5.5. If it was like 5.5.3 no one would up vote it.
ihsw 13y ago
For significant features implemented, you can look here: https://wiki.php.net/rfc#implemented https://wiki.php.net/rfc#implemented Granted, this was a minor point release, so there are no new features (only bugfixes and minor perf improvements).
kbenson 13y ago
When the site is based on and praised for it's "throw everything at the wall and see what sticks" process, you can't complain too much when certain nasty things tend to be fairly sticky.

qnk 13y ago

This is just a maintenance release. If you want to see what's coming to PHP for the next feature-release version, check the RFC wiki at https://wiki.php.net/rfc https://wiki.php.net/rfc So far, these features will probably make it to version 5.6: * Internal Operator Overloading * Variadic functions

borplk 13y ago
> Operator Overloading That's scary
- TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
  It's for internal PHP runtime use only. IIRC we're adding it so that our bignum library is nicer to use.
rbmoshe 13y ago
> Variadic functions Doesn't PHP have that already? http://us2.php.net/func_get_args http://us2.php.net/func_get_args Edit - Checking out that parent link it seems: Currently variadic functions are implemented by fetching the function arguments using func_get_args(). The following code sample shows an implementation of a variadic function used to prepare and execute a MySQL query (I'll be making use of this example throughout the RFC): Firstly, by just looking at the function signature public function query($query) you cannot know that this is actually a variadic function. You'd think that the function can only run a normal query and doesn't support bound parameters: public function query($query, ...$params) { /*... $userData = $db->query('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?', $userID)->fetch();
- TazeTSchnitzel 13y ago
  There's a counterpart unpacking syntax which will likely also get merged in, meaning you can have: function query($query, ...$params) {} and $params = [3]; query('SELECT * FROM table WHERE a = ?;', ...$params);
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

dancecodes 13y ago

waiting erlang features: -pattern matching -atoms -tuples -lists -hot code loading -function arguments matching -tail recursion -term_to_binary binary_to_term -lightweight green processes with PIDs -receive...end -begin...end -pash -and other nice features from erlang

jtreminio 13y ago
Why don't you just use erlang then? This isn't in PHP's interest.
- dancecodes 13y ago
  I use Erlang in some tasks. Its very cool system but not have some features such in PHP. No OOP and namespaces. PHP stay at important point now and must determinate vector for main moving. I think its may branch to FP and inspired on Erlang. Repeat again its may be branch. But without major types like lists and tuples and pattern matching its not quite...but I dont know. These things make major flower. Im sorry for love Erlang and PHP but it is true.
GrinningFool 13y ago
Not to put too fine a point on it, but why wouldn't you just use Erlang?
- dancecodes 13y ago
  Erlang dont have objects and namespaces

M4N14C 13y ago

You can't polish a turd.

ck2 13y ago

Note there is no speed improvement between PHP 5.4 and 5.5 Unless you need a 5.5 feature, best to wait. Of course you can manually install the open-sourced zend opcode cache into PHP 5.4 and get the speed improvement from that.

ecaron 13y ago
That's a rather bold statement to make. Windows users, for instance, see a tremendous speed bump in going to 5.5 (http://blog.syntaxc4.net/post/2013/06/20/php-5-5-0-for-windows-released.aspx http://blog.syntaxc4.net/post/2013/06/20/php-5-5-0-for-windo...). Obviously going the "there is/isn't performance gains" flamewar route alone is a conversation nobody would win. So I would through this out there: If you have the capability to move to PHP 5.5, because there aren't performance penalties, you should - if for no other reason than it'll help you stay ahead of the PHP EOL sythe.

leeoniya 13y ago

"Added support for GNU Hurd" finally! /s Humor aside, it's nice to see how OPCache has displaced APC and is under active maintenance in step with the core.

pearjuice 13y ago

We can't have anything involving PHP without: * complaints about features it has or has not * a reference to that "a fractal of bad design" article * how language x is better * sarcastic notes about the above * one guy pointing out we can't have anything involving PHP without the above

Udo 13y ago
Overall you're right, this is what irritates me about almost any PHP thread as well. Almost no HNer would go into, say, a C++ thread, spit on it and advertise Python. But yet the same thing is happening regularly with PHP. Then again, I was pleasantly surprised we don't have that in this thread (yet). However, I don't think this is a worthwhile URL to point to on the grounds of near-irrelevance. There are no major new features being released here.
- pearjuice 13y ago
  >Then again, I was pleasantly surprised we don't have that in this thread (yet). By any chance, do you have "show dead" turned off? Because you are missing out.
  - Udo 13y ago
    Ooops, you're right :) But those are dead for a reason, I wouldn't include them when judging a thread anyway.
- astrodust 13y ago
  The reason Python people don't go into a C++ thread is because the C++ people will take care of themselves, getting into bitter trench warfare over wether X feature was a good idea, a great idea, or the worst idea ever. PHP, Python, Ruby, Perl and C# have a lot of overlap in terms of what they do, but the overlap between C++ and Python is way smaller. C#, C++ and Java have much more in common. There are some things that C++ is very good at, where the alternative is usually C, something most would prefer to avoid. There's nothing that PHP is very good at that Python, Ruby, Perl or C# can't do nearly as well. That's why it attracts so much criticism.

thehme 13y ago

Goal of the day: going home to upgrade to latest PHP latest 5.5 patch version. (5.6 later https://wiki.php.net/rfc https://wiki.php.net/rfc)

ausjke 13y ago

PHP was picked on because it is too popular? I dare to say that after some considerations my project is using PHP. I use python daily, but that does not mean I need hate other languages. All has its places and different projects can have different choices.

rofl 13y ago

You can not make "the most popular language for web development" without attracting a few jealous people and their negativities. Like it or not, PHP is THE most popular language for developing web applications. And it didn't reach that rank without merits. Sun pushed Java, Microsoft pushed C#, Google pushed Python in direct and indirect ways (but Google gave up on Python and created Go). No big company spent a lot of money to push PHP (Yahoo started using PHP when it was already popular). PHP reached there because it had some merits in it. - PHP is easy to get started and it helps people without CS background to learn it quickly and code apps to solve problems. - PHP doesn't force you to use OOP unless you need or want that. A musician named Derek Sivers who had no CS background created CDBaby website after following instructions in a PHP book. When Rails fanboys were making a lot of news, Derek decided to use Rails and scrap the original PHP codes [1]. He hired a top Rails developer and spent a lot of money (compared to the money - i.e. cost of a book on PHP - spent on his original PHP code) to rebuild CDBaby in Rails. The project eventually failed - time and money lost. CDBaby continued to grow rapidly and the site was powered by PHP codes. By telling this story, I am not trying to say Ruby and Rails are hard or bad. Ruby and Rails are tools just like PHP. The point I want to make with this story is PHP can get almost anyone up and running without much difficulties. Many people could get into business easily because of the ease of PHP. Just think if Derek had tried to make his first site using Rails! Probably, we would have never known the story of CDBaby. I believe, the purpose of a programming language is to make it easy for user (of the language) to create solution instead of trying to prove the greatness (e.g. lot of features) of itself or it's creator. Why is PHP easy? PHP is easy because Rasmus Lerdorf didn't have CS background. He didn't want to create a language to have all the features and concepts taught/learn in a CS class of programming languages. Rasmus just wanted to create a tool to easily publish pages dynamically on web. On the other hand, you can take a look at Java if you want to know how a language looks when the creator has PhD in CS and wants to apply all his knowledge of CS in the language. I am NOT trying to bash Java or Gosling, just trying to explain why some languages are created complex and difficult. TL;DR: PHP is just a tool like Ruby or C. It has plus and minus points like any other language. PHP makes it easy to get up and running (even if you don't have a degree in CS). If you like PHP (after you try it), stick to it (because with PHP, you can get atleast as big as Facebook). If you don't like it, pick another language that works for you. And this last point is mainly for Snake lovers on HN : never bite a language (or users of that language) because you don't like or use that language. [1] http://www.oreillynet.com/ruby/blog/2007/09/7_reasons_i_switched_back_to_p_1.html http://www.oreillynet.com/ruby/blog/2007/09/7_reasons_i_swit...